Bête Noir
by the.israel.project107
Summary: In a noir Twilight Town, Riku is tracking down a murderer, never realising that the more he hunts, the more hunted he becomes. RiSo.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hellooo, everybody! This is out of the blue, I know. I've been going through a lot lately, and it struck me that one of my greatest comfort zones is deep inside a fic, so here I am. Please forgive if the quality isn't up to the usual standard. This is the first fic I'm writing on a medication that swamps my brain and makes remembering words extremely difficult, which sucks, but hey – that's what ctrl-F7 is for :D Anyway, here's the first of who knows how many chapters. I hope you like it. Thank you all for reading.

.o.O.o.

CHAPTER ONE

Riku's troubles began with a corpse in an alleyway, not that he was around for that part. But it was the corpse that kicked it all off and dragged Riku into some shit he wasn't remotely prepared for.

The one who drew him into it was a red-haired dame from a smoky piano lounge a couple blocks away from his drab downtown office, knocking hesitantly at his door. He glanced up from grimacing at a sheaf of bills and simply called out, "Yeah." The dame opened the door and stepped inside, still wearing her glamorous gown from work under a heavy overcoat, eyes darting around his shabby space before settling on him behind the desk.

"Riku… Thank you for seeing me."

He waved off her thanks and beckoned her in in a single motion, not in the mood at this late hour for patter. "What's up, Kairi? You said on the phone it was an emergency."

She closed the door carefully, looking cautious, nervous, worried. "It's safe to talk here, right?"

Riku's eyes narrowed slightly. He placed down his bills and leaned back in his chair, a long creak sounding out from its aged wheels. "It's not bugged, if that's what you mean. No one's listening in." He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a small metal case, flipping it open and taking out a cigarette. He lit it with the flick of a match and offered it to the woman, who took it gratefully and sat opposite him.

"There's been a murder," she said. Riku didn't so much as quirk an eyebrow. This was Twilight Town, where criminals used the dusky daylight hours as much as the inky night to execute their crimes, and their enemies.

"There's always a murder."

She puffed at the cigarette, the smoke furling slowly from her lips. "Yeah, but this time it's someone I know. Or, it involves someone I know."

"Oh?" Riku opened a second drawer and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. Kairi shook her head minutely when he offered her the bottle, and with a shrug he filled only one of the glasses. "So, who's the stiff?"

"He's the brother of this guy I work with. I told him – I told him I'd ask you to look into it."

"That was generous of you," Riku drawled.

"I'll pay you with my tips," she sharply replied.

"He must be quite a friend." Riku swirled his drink and took a sip, feeling it roll harshly down his throat. "So, how can I help with a murder?"

Kairi tapped some ash into a glass tray on the desk, expression stony. "The cops aren't doing anything. You know how it goes."

"…I know how it goes." Riku scowled down into his whiskey. He had helped Kairi once before, when the lounge she sang at was getting shaken down by some local thugs while paying the constabulary to look the other way. The police force in Twilight Town was only as good as its most crooked member… and that accounted for most of them. "But again, I have to ask – how am I supposed to help with someone who's already dead?"

"Well, shit, Riku," Kairi huffed, throwing her hands up agitatedly, the cigarette trailing through the air, "you're a P.I., aren't you? So privately investigate. Find out who did it."

"To what end?" Riku tersely asked. "If the police are looking the other way on a murder, they're not going to suddenly pay attention to the facts just because I point out they're not doing their jobs."

"What does it matter so long as you get paid?" A pleading tone entered her voice. "Come on, Riku, Sora's really cut up over this. His brother was all he had. Any time he asks a damn question the cops act like they're going to break his legs. He just wants some answers."

"That's all you want me to do? Get answers?" Riku pursed his lips, staring contemplatively into his drink. To the side, the pile of bills caught his eye. He sighed. "…All right. But don't go telling your friend that there's going to be any justice in this. Just answers – that's all I can aim for."

"That's all he's hoping for," Kairi said. "We all know what this town is like. He just – he needs to know."

Riku hesitated, then nodded. "All right, then. It's a deal. You know my pay rate. I'll give you the bill once I'm through."

"Thank you." Kairi crushed the cigarette out in the ashtray and stood, gathering her coat around her body. "I'll see myself out. The guy who was killed was named Roxas, it happened behind the cineplex. Everything else, you'll have to find out yourself." She closed the door behind her, leaving the office quiet, but the air heavier than it had been before she arrived. Riku pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache start behind his eyes. He'd been wanting to get to bed soon. Seemed like that would have to wait for now, though.

.o.O.o.

It was rounding on two a.m. when Riku stepped into the doorway of an all-night diner, its harsh white light dousing the greasy surroundings. He dipped his head, removing his hat, and shrugged off his overcoat, leaving the bitter night back at the windows.

"Coffee, please," he said to the waitress behind the counter, and found a booth in the corner, away from prying eyes. With a heavy sigh, he scratched a hand through his hair, feeling the chill slowly leave his clothing. His coffee came, leaving him to occupy himself with adding sugar and a dash of whiskey from a flask, stirring it all together as a second person joined him at the booth. He looked up and froze. His lips thinned.

"Hello, Riku." The man sitting across from him had a mocking tone, a twinkle in his eye, pushing back the floppy blond hair from his forehead.

"Joshua…"

Joshua smirked. "Expecting someone else? Hayner perhaps?" When Riku scowled, he chuckled, seemingly enjoying the other man's suspicion. "I was considered a less… conspicuous messenger."

Riku regarded him sceptically. "Why would Hayner send you? Do you even know what you're here for?"

"Sure, I do." Joshua flashed him a grin, reaching into his coat and revealing the corner of a beige envelope. "Quite an interesting case, this one."

"…Why would you be involved in this?" Riku was unwilling to let go of his distrust. Joshua was a mixed bag, a grinning jackal who was infamous for his involvement in less than honest activities, while simultaneously managing to have a good record of cases solved. He was perfect for the Twilight Town police force. The cases they _wanted _solved, Joshua could do, and did well. But the idea that Hayner would have anything to do with him, let alone send him along to deliver illicit materials from a stymied investigation…

"Oh, we all play the game in our own way," Joshua said lightly, almost gaily. But then, the mischief that was rarely far from his tone faded somewhat, a tightened quality touching his smile. "But you know, things just haven't been the same since they silenced my partner."

Riku blinked, remembering a self-contained, serious young man somehow putting up with Joshua's constant bullshit. "Neku…" Riku remembered hearing about it around a year ago. He'd officially been shot in the line of duty, but there had been whispers that he had been poking around in things that the higher-ups had put a bounty on his head for. Nothing was ever confirmed – nothing ever got confirmed in Twilight Town – but it was just one of many deaths to occur in similar circumstances. It seemed like honest cops never lasted long in Twilight Town; whether they left, as Riku had, in disillusionment, or died, as Neku had, pursuing forbidden activities.

The loose ends left behind were people like Joshua, Riku supposed. People who had been content not rocking the boat until the sharp reality of Twilight Town made itself felt.

"Yes," Joshua said. "Neku." In that one name, there was a world of dark emotion, startling from someone as routinely impish as Joshua. His expression hadn't really slipped from its usual smirk, but there was something – icy about it. "So, I do what I can whenever the opportunity shows itself."

Suddenly, Riku didn't doubt him anymore. He saw why Hayner had sent him. Hayner was one of the very, very few who stayed to try and make it work. God knew why. Maybe Hayner's sense of justice was just stronger than others. Maybe he actually thought he could make a difference. Either way, on the few occasions Riku had reached out to him for information, Hayner usually came through; and if he had decided that Joshua was a worthy ally, then Riku supposed he had no reason to doubt him.

He held out his flask, as an olive branch for his initial suspicion. "Want a nip?"

Joshua's grin regained its glittery quality. "I'll trade you." He pulled out the envelope and slid it across the table and snatched the flask out of Riku's hand. He took a gulp from it, then capped it and… tucked it into his own coat. Oh. 'Trade', huh? Riku sighed, Joshua giving a wink in return. He plucked up Riku's hat, plopped it on his own head, and tipped it playfully. "Well, then. Have fun, Riku…"

"Oh, come on, my hat…" Riku's protest fell on deaf ears. Joshua got up and positively sashayed away with his new flask and hat, his glee palpable. Riku groaned as his hat disappeared into the night without him, dropping his face into his hands. Oh, well. At least Joshua hadn't taken his coffee, too. He sipped at its warmth, one eye on the envelope the incorrigible officer had left in payment. Time to get an idea of what he was dealing with here.

Clearing his throat, glancing around to make sure no one was paying him any undue attention – unlikely, considering the diner was practically empty – he unwound the string holding the envelope shut and eased the flap upward, drawing out several sheets of paper and a single black and white photograph. The photograph was what caught his eye first, fluttering face down onto the table. Flipping it over, Riku found himself looking at a crime scene. It wasn't the clearest image; it must have been why Hayner was confident enough to smuggle it out. Nobody would have been paying it much attention. To begin with, its low quality fooled Riku into not processing what was captured within it. He thought his eyes were just trying to adjust to a blurry picture. But the longer he stared at it, a crawling, prickling sensation started up at the nape of his neck. His throat moved as he swallowed, eyes squinting to make sure he was absolutely, definitely making it out correctly. Something like nausea was starting to build in his stomach. He placed the photo down, took a gulp of whiskey-laced coffee, and just felt the nausea turn sour. When he turned his gaze back onto the picture, nothing had changed. It was all still there, printed out in black and white, shakily shot but clear as day.

The body of a blond man, lying on the ground, eyes shut with the unmistakeably slack features of a corpse, a dark pool around him of what could only be blood…

…with a gaping hole in his chest where his heart had been.

Twilight Town always found new, terrible ways to surprise him.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Gritting his teeth, exhaling slowly through his nose, Riku picked up the police report that Hayner had sent along, tucking the photo underneath it so as not to have to have that grisly scene staring at him from the corner of his eye. He steadied his nerves from the shock and turned his gaze to the papers, eyebrows knitted.

The first page was a summary of the victim. Roxas Goldman. Twenty-three years old. Male. 167 cm. Blond. Deceased. Next of kin was – Sora Goldman. Riku recognised the name as the brother who Kairi worked with, had contacted him to find answers for. The report was dated from five days ago. Six, now, since it was past midnight. Six days with unhelpful cops and no answers would be enough to drive anyone to seek outside help. There was an address for the next of kin. Riku took out a notepad and pencil from inside his coat and scribbled it down, along with the name.

He turned the page and came face to face with a clinical description of the body and the autopsy. The time of death was estimated to be between eleven p.m. and four a.m. Cause of death – loss of blood.

"Blood loss?" Riku muttered to himself, writing it down and scratching a line underneath it. He was pretty sure the blood loss would have been secondary to the fact that had the blood stayed in his body, there'd have been nothing to _pump _it. There was, in fact, no mention of the missing organ at all. The cause of blood loss was typed up as a fatal chest wound.

Steeling himself, Riku again brought out the photograph, bringing it close so he could study the so-called 'chest wound'. It was… clearly cavernous. There was nothing _there._ If even a blurred photograph could show that much, there was no way the goddamned coroner was going to mistake it. It reeked of the coverup which was clearly happening. This person, Roxas… he'd clearly crossed the wrong people. Just like Joshua's partner, Neku. Just like so many others in Twilight Town. But still, Riku had never come across a case like this. The nature of the wound was so startling. The fact that a man could be robbed of his heart in an alleyway was a big event, and if the top brass were working now to make it disappear, that meant that – someone high up in Twilight Town had made this happen. But how? Who did _this? _And how had the upper echelons known so quickly that it needed to be wiped away? This was such a brutal crime. Did that mean that someone in Twilight Town's leadership had done this? It was no mere execution. And yet, it had all the other hallmarks of one. Minimal coroner's report. Uncooperative police. A lack of answers. But who in God's name was Roxas Goldman to earn such a savage and pitiless end?

Joshua had told him it was an interesting case. Riku was beginning to see why.

He slowly packed the photograph and the police report back into the envelope. Tossing a couple of crumpled bills onto the table and dragged his coat back on. First thing he needed to do was get a few hours of sleep. Then, it was time to meet Sora Goldman.

.o.O.o.

Riku spent the night at his office, his coat as a blanket, sleeping fitfully on the beaten-up sofa against the wall. He was woken by harsh light entering through the curtain slats, shining directly onto his face. He stirred, blinked, squinted, and rubbed his coarse eyes as the headache that had been lying in wait burst back to life. He exhaled old whiskey breath, sitting slowly, raising a hand to block the sunlight. Shuffling into the corner of the office, where a small sink and shelf sat, he fished a chipped mug off the shelf and filled it with brackish water from the tap. He gulped it down, heaving a low sigh and dipping his head, shoulders hunching as he readied himself for the day ahead.

"…Okay." This one word uttered as a force of impetus, he snatched his coat up and shrugged it on, grabbing the scribbled directions to the Goldman residence before heading out the door. He opted to walk, the address in question being about a fifteen-minute walk from the downtown borough where his office sat. Pressing through the chilly morning air, wishing the sun would be a little merciful and duck behind some clouds, he used the time to wake up and clear his head. Between the alcohol, a few too many cigarettes turning his chest cobwebby, the lack of good sleep and food, and that photograph, he needed a little… equilibrium. This whole case, abruptly brought before him, savage in its execution, had him feeling off-kilter.

He arrived at the Goldman residence, slightly out of breath, his exhalations puffing out visibly in the cold. It was a narrow townhouse set back from the street behind a short fence of black spokes, Riku unhooking the gate, which dragged and scraped at the ground as he pushed it open. It travelled noisily along a rough semicircle in the concrete, causing people to glance over in the midst of their travels. He hesitated, then forced it back into place before approaching the door. He pressed a finger to the doorbell and waited a moment, before getting the uncanny feeling that someone was watching him. He rubbed his neck slowly at the prickle, noticing the peephole in the centre of the door. He had only just rung the bell, but – ah. Of course. He glanced back at the gate, more effective than any bell or knocker, and, clearing his throat, leaned towards the door.

"My name is Riku. I was asked to help a man named Sora by a mutual acquaintance who sings at the lounge on thirty-third and fifth."

A beat passed, and then the sound of a lock and chain disengaging were heard. The door eased open, revealing a wary face with shadowy eyes. "…The P.I.?"

"You are Sora Goldman?" Riku inquired. The eyes dropped.

"Yeah. Come in." He disappeared from the doorway, which swung wide to allow him entry. Riku noticed as he stepped across the threshold that it was snapped quickly back into place, the locks put deftly back before he'd taken more than a couple steps. This person was anxious of the outside world, as one might imagine given the circumstances.

Riku turned to look at him clearly, taken aback a little at the youthfulness of the man's features. Still, his face wasn't entirely unfamiliar – he was a dead ringer for the deceased, even given the graininess of the photograph. It caused Riku to draw a short breath, as though he might look down and see a hole in his chest. Instead, there was an oversized shirt, making him seem smaller despite the narrowness of the hallway they stood in.

"Thank you for coming," Sora said, exhaustion weighing his voice low. "Um, I need to thank Kairi, too, don't I?"

Riku smiled faintly. "Wait until I get some results. Maybe then you can thank her." The quirk of his lips vanishing, he went on to ask, "Is now an okay time to talk?"

Sora met his gaze, and Riku's heart palpitated slightly. "Now's as good a time as any," he replied wearily. "I was meant to be going to bed, but…" He bit his lip and glanced away. "I haven't really been – sleeping so well the last few days."

Riku dipped his head. "I understand. I'm sorry for your loss."

Sora sighed, moving past him into a side room, gesturing for him to follow. "Can I get you anything? There's a fresh pot of coffee if you'd like some."

"That can't be helping with the sleep," Riku pointed out, in a feeble attempt at levity. Sora's gaze pierced him.

"I prefer not to, if I can help it."

That was a sentiment Riku could identify with. He smiled thinly. "Coffee would be great. Thanks."

He sat down as Sora disappeared to get drinks, glancing around at an old but neat room, filled with plush chairs, floral wallpaper, and shelves filled with odd little knick-knacks. It had a grandmotherly feel to it. Sora returned with two steaming mugs, handing one to Riku, who accepted it gratefully. This was the sort of liquid courage he needed first thing in the morning. He needed to restock the office. "This is an interesting room," he mentioned as Sora settled across from him. Blinking, Sora glanced around.

"Ah. This is actually my godmother's townhouse. She lives by the sea, and rents this place out to me and…" He hesitated, going quiet. "Well, just to me now," he finished softly.

In the silence that followed, they each took a sip of coffee. Placing his mug carefully on one of many coasters on the low table, he pulled out his notebook and pencil and flipped to a fresh page. "If I may…?" Sora nodded. "I'd like to find out a bit about yourself to begin with. Can you tell me how old you are?"

"Twenty-three."

Riku paused. "The same as the victim?"

Again, Sora nodded. "Twins." He could hardly be heard. Riku felt a grip of sympathy.

"…I see." Turning his attention back to his notebook, he went on, "So, the two of you lived here together?"

"More or less," Sora replied. "We moved out together after school. Roxas attended the local college while I worked."

"Have you always played at the piano bar?"

The young man shook his head. "I've had a lot of different jobs. The piano bar is just the latest. I wasn't there the last time when you helped with the crooked cops." He gazed down into his coffee cup. "But once Roxas got together with Axel, he spent a lot less time here, and a lot more at the university."

"I see." Riku wrote this down. "And who is Axel? A friend?"

"Boyfriend. They were together for about a year. Maybe a little longer. I don't know the exact dates or anything." A shadow passing over his face. "Roxas… changed a little after meeting Axel."

Riku, interest already piqued by the existence of a significant other not mentioned in the official report, looked up, his gaze searching. "Changed in what way?"

Sora chose his words carefully, as if picking at a thread in his mind. "He was away a lot, and when he was around… he seemed jumpy. He never told me why, even when I straight up asked him. He told me I was imagining things, but…" He took a breath. "In light of – his death… I think that maybe there was something going on."

Riku slowly nodded. "That seems like a good instinct." He mulled this over in his head. "So, for the last year, you'd say your brother's behaviour was different from normal? And, what, you think it was catalysed by meeting this Axel person?"

"Maybe," Sora said. "I don't really know. But it wasn't too long after meeting Axel that he became that way."

"Have you met Axel before?"

"A couple times. Never for very long, though." His expression grew troubled. "He seemed… nice enough. But odd. Like he didn't know how to act around me. And kind of like he knew something funny, like a joke that no one else was in on." He looked at Riku and shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry, I know that's weird and vague. I don't know how else to put it."

Riku wrote it down word for word, though. "If that's the impression he gave you, then that's the impression he gave you. You seem like a perceptive enough individual, from what I've heard so far. I'm not going to tell you you were imagining anything."

There was a hint of relief on Sora's face. "…Thank you." Riku gave him a small smile, glad to see him relax a little.

"I want to help you, any way that I can. That's what I'm here for, Sora." He turned the page in his notebook. "Can I ask what your brother was studying at the university?"

"Molecular biology."

Riku blinked, surprised. "…That's a pretty advanced degree, isn't it?"

"Roxas is – was – really into science and human evolution and stuff. He was in the first year of his graduate degree. He'd even been performing research with the university." Sora's voice had dulled at the self-correction. Riku detected vestiges of pride that he must have felt from his brother's academic successes, now just confusion that someone so full of potential had been snuffed out. "That's how he met Axel."

"I see." Riku wrote everything down intently. "And it was around when he met Axel – when he was performing this research – that he began acting differently, around a year ago." Sora inclined his head silently. "How about in the last week or so of his life?" Riku asked. "Was there anything that particularly stood out to you?"

Sora hung his head. "I – I've been trying to figure that out. It's been almost a week since he died, and I've been wracking my brain, but…" His weariness seemed to compound, as he struggled to find some deeper meaning in his twin's final days. "There… was nothing…" His pain rose to the surface, voice cracking. He so desperately wanted to provide some sort of information, but… if someone acted like normal right up until their abnormal death, there was nothing you could do.

"I understand," Riku quietly said. "It's all right; you don't need to beat yourself up."

Sora raised his eyes, anguished. "I just want to know why this happened. I can't – believe that he's gone." Tears welling, he sniffed, tried to wipe them away before they could be seen. "It would be easier if the police were helping out, I mean he was _murdered, _but no one's doing a goddamn thing…!" He gulped, fought to control himself, before the stoic mask he had assumed to talk about it all cracked, and he began weeping in earnest.

Before he knew it, Riku was moving, slapping his notebook and pencil onto the table and sweeping around to sit beside the boy, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He squeezed him, bewildered, as he sobbed, face buried in his hands. Sora didn't even know the most distressing part of the crime, but he was left feeling all the pain from the loss, and the fearfulness of encountering violent crime. Somebody _did _this, both to Roxas, and to Sora, and was still out there somewhere. Riku pressed his lips thinly together, feeling the spark of a flame start up inside him. The desire to figure this crime out and bring some closure to the pitifully crying young man in his arms grew from the self-serving motivation of financial gain that he had initially accepted the case for. For the first time in a long – _long – _time, Riku actually wanted to help someone. It was almost startling. All just from a brief conversation with one doe-eyed, grieving boy.

Christ. He must be getting softer than he realised.

As Sora began to calm, Riku became conscious of how tightly he was grasping him and let go, shifting away to put some space between them. "Um." He felt suddenly awkward.

"I'm sorry," Sora rasped, using the sleeves of his large shirt to wipe his wet cheeks. "I didn't mean to break down like that." He closed his eyes with a shuddering breath. "I'm just tired. That's all."

Riku watched him for a moment longer, noticing the tears still clinging to his long eyelashes, the slight redness of his face following the episode, before nodding once, decisively. "Sora, I – I'm going to solve this. I won't let you stay like this."

Sora blinked slowly, meeting his gaze. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled – a wide, warm expression that alongside the tears was like the sun coming out after a storm. Riku felt the breath catch in his throat, eyes widening, cheeks warming out of nowhere. "Thank you." Though his voice trembled, Sora sounded truly grateful.

Feeling flustered, not knowing what to do with his hands, Riku abruptly stood, went back around the coffee table and picked up his notepad, tucking it back inside his coat. He grabbed the coffee that Sora had given him and drained it in one go, leaving the empty mug next to Sora's own on the table. "Okay. I should – I should go, then. I'll find out what I can and, uh, keep you notified."

Sora stood and followed him back to the front door. As he unlocked it, he said, "I'm home from four a.m. until five p.m., whenever you want to visit. Oh, but the bar is closer to your office, isn't it? You can see me during working hours, if that's easier."

"Right. Okay." Riku again nodded, trying to get his head back on track. "Then – I'll see you another time."

"Thanks, Riku. Bye…" With that final soft parting, Sora closed the door. Riku listened to the locks re-engage, then turned and set out back into the city, his notebook filled of clues and his mind full of blue-eyed tears.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Riku stood on the sidewalk in thought for a while, a cigarette clamped between his lips to steady himself after the encounter with Sora Goldman. He flipped through his notebook, checking over the scribbles he'd made from the police dossier and Sora's account of his brother. His ideal next stop was the boyfriend, Axel, but between one thing and another, what with Sora crying and all, Riku had, uh, forgotten to ask where he might be. He irritably dropped his cigarette butt and crushed it with a heel. What the hell sort of private investigator…

A vision of Sora's teary face filled his mind, blanking everything else out for a moment. He shook his head to try and clear it. Nope, nope, nope. Staying focused. He wasn't about to turn around and knock on Sora's door again like some sort of amateur, so his next best course of action now was to head onwards to the deceased's college campus.

He headed for the nearest tram stop and waited, a frosty wind blowing along the exposed roadside. There was only university campus in the area – Twilight University. It was a college campus that served the entire city, as well as boarders from other towns. Riku had never been there before, but he had patrolled past it plenty of times as a cop, keeping an eye out in this crazy city for the kids wanting to learn in peace. Of course, it wasn't like the university wasn't its own hotbed of corruption issues – tales of bribery, nepotism, and blackmail ran rife – but the students were more or less innocent of all of that.

The tram trolley took him to a stop right outside the campus, a collection of students disembarking alongside him and pouring through the institution's gates. He meandered along with them, asking for directions to the Biology department, where he was pointed from the reception desk towards the Molecular Biology building.

He wandered the hallways until he found an occupied room in the midst of a lecture. Slipping inside, he took a seat at the back and tried to follow along for a while, before giving up and turning his attention to his notebook until the lesson was over. He looked up as a flurry of movement denoted the end, standing and quickly exiting the room so that as the Molecular Biology students came out he could start asking after Roxas Goldman. After being brushed off a few times, one girl pointed him to a young woman by the name of Naminé. She was partway down the hall already, leaving Riku to duck and dart his way along until he reached her. Grabbing hold of her arm, he caused her to gasp, whipping around in surprise. "Can I help you?" she asked, alarmed.

"I was wondering if I could have a minute of your time, Miss." Riku smiled in what was hopefully a disarming manner, but it had little effect on the girl, who held her books nervously close to her chest and darted her eyes up and down his shabby appearance. He really shouldn't have slept in his clothes. Pressing on before she could turn him down, he continued, "It's about Roxas Goldman. I heard he's an acquaintance of yours."

All at once, the look on her face shifted from apprehension to fear. She shook her head minutely, blonde hair shaking around her shoulders. "No – no, I'm sorry, I…" She stepped back from him. "I've actually got another class to get to, so if you wouldn't mind…" She tugged at her forearm, still held firmly in Riku's grasp. Her reaction was investigative pay-dirt, but it puzzled him.

His gaze narrowing, he peered into her pale face. "I was told that you knew him. You must be aware that he died earlier this week?"

She hesitated, giving her arm another pull, teeth baring anxiously. "That's – that's true, yes. It's terrible. I'm very sad about it. But I really do need to –"

"I'm trying to find out what happened to him," Riku told her, giving her wrist a short squeeze. "If I could just have some of your time to ask you about Roxas, you'd really be –"

She contracted, shoulders hunching, face screwing, crying out, "Let me _go!" _

Summoned from a nearby room by her exclamation, a man stepped into the hallway, Riku gritting his teeth in frustration. "Is there are problem here?"

Riku released Naminé reluctantly, who snatched her arm close and retreated several feet. "P-Professor Zexion!" she exclaimed, relief palpable. "Um, this gentleman was just – um – I need to go." She turned on her heel and veritably fled the scene. Riku frowned after her, before a firm hand on his shoulder drew his attention back around to the professor.

He was pinned by an icy glare, the man squeezing his shoulder in much the same way that he had been doing to Naminé's arm a moment ago. "I don't know who you are, but you clearly don't belong here." His face twitched with disgust. "You reek of alcohol and cigarettes. If you are looking for somewhere to panhandle, do it outside of this establishment. Leave now, or I will call security."

"I'm here for a reason," Riku shot back, shrugging him off and attempting to straighten his rumpled clothing.

"Whatever it might be, I simply don't care," the man responded coldly.

Riku scowled. "So, you don't care that one of your own students was killed last week?"

Already in the process of turning away, the professor now paused. He studied Riku out of the edge of his eye. "…I beg your pardon?"

"If you're a teacher of this department, then you must have known Roxas Goldman?" Riku pressed. "His death is being investigated."

The man turned slightly towards him, eerily expressionless. "I was under the impression that the police had already completed their investigation on that matter."

"How could it possibly have concluded in less than a week?" Riku demanded. "There are still plenty of questions that require answers."

"I see." The man considered this, then asked, "May I have your name and badge number, please?"

Riku stopped short. He hadn't been expecting that. He hesitated, then said, "Actually, I'm investigating this as a private citizen."

Zexion's expression hardened. "I _see. _So, in other words, you have absolutely no authority, no proper information, and in fact are harassing my students for your own ends." He turned and strode into the room he had emerged from, Riku hearing the click of a telephone receiver lifting, then the man's steady voice saying, "This is Zexion, I require security immediately in –"

Riku hurriedly left, managing to avoid the guards by taking random hallways until he found a back exit. Certain that they'd be waiting for him at the gates, he instead found a tree by the university's solid walls and climbed it, hopping over and rolling as he hit the pavement on the other side. As he did so, he managed to slam his shoulder, not as spry as he had been when he'd been regularly training for such capers as a police officer. Hissing at the pain, he climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. Damn. That had been a hell of a waste of time. Gripping his shoulder, giving it a couple of test rotations, he made his way back around to the tram stop, where he found himself suddenly face to face with the blonde girl from the Molecular Biology building.

They each froze, Riku ready for her to start yelling, preparing himself to set off running. Inexplicably, however, after recovering from the surprise, she instead glanced around the area, making sure no one of significance was watching, then cautiously approached him. They stood side by side at the stop, the several others around them preventing them from speaking openly, since the girl was clearly trying to avoid being seen doing that. Instead, she reached into her satchel and brought out a pen and book, scribbling something on the corner of a page and tearing it off. Visibly tense, she dropped her arms to her sides, swaying them a bit, her knuckles touching Riku's. Getting the hint, he surreptitiously accepted the scrap from her, before she yawned, stretched, and wandered away, back towards the campus. She… wasn't very good at acting nonchalant. Still, she had behaved very differently from their previous encounter. Still fearful, but willing now. Why was that? Was the university hallway not a safe place to talk?

Riku waited until he was on the tram before he flattened the scrap of paper out and stared down at a hastily jotted phone number. So, she did want to speak with him. That was something. But what could she say over the phone that she was too afraid to say in person? What did she know about Roxas' death? Riku had gone there aiming to get some extra information on the guy that his brother mightn't have been privy to, not to uncover something actually significant. Little bits of clues were what added up into a bigger picture; dots of info here and there that Riku could then sew together into a tapestry of what had occurred. Rarely did anything big just fall into your lap, and if he had any cop instinct left whatsoever, he could say with an almost certainty that 'something big' was precisely what that Naminé girl had been withholding in the college hallway.

He carefully folded the piece of paper in half and tucked it into his pocket, sitting back for the rest of the journey and letting his eyes and thoughts rest for a while. He rode the tram until his apartment building came into view, hopping off and heading up the cold stairwell to his fifth-floor home. With a heavy breath, he fished out his keys and opened the door, hanging his coat up and kicking his shoes off almost in a single motion. It felt like it had been an age since he'd been back, to this quiet, dim apartment with peeling wallpaper and old furniture; but at the end of the day, it was home.

Shuffling along the worn carpet, he unhooked the suspenders from his shoulders and unbuttoned his shirt, heading to the bathroom to take a hot shower and wash away the so-called 'reek' of cigarettes and a night's work. He brushed his teeth, rinsed his hair, and stepped out feeling fresher. Falling into bed, he napped the afternoon away, dreams fleeting, occasional flashes of remembrance of the day passed. He was sure he dreamed of Sora. When he woke, twilight melting into shadow evening, an imprint of blue eyes was left on his mind.

He stepped out onto the tiny balcony jutting from the side of the building and lit up a cigarette, standing in the deepening darkness and staring out at the city lights. At length, his stomach growled, prodding him back inside to the refrigerator, where he found nothing of substance. He picked up a bottle of bourbon from the kitchen counter and took a few swigs of that instead, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and a wince. He checked the time on his wristwatch: six-fifty p.m. He'd slept half the day away.

He went and dug out the phone number that Naminé had left him and crossed to the telephone on the wall, carefully turning the dial, making sure not to miss a digit. The tinny ringing sounded in his ear as he leaned against the wall, eyes slipping shut, a yawn lifting up from deep in his belly. Then came a click, and a deep, flat voice said, "This is Axel."

Riku jolted, the yawn cutting short, his teeth clicking shut with surprise. _Axel? _Not Naminé?

"Hello?" There was irritation in the voice.

Completely awake now, Riku's eyes darted as he repositioned his thoughts. "Hello – is this the same Axel who was acquainted with Roxas Goldman?"

There was a pause, followed by a frigid response: "Who the fuck is this?" That was as much of an affirmative as Riku needed.

"Axel, my name is Riku. I'm investigating Mr. Goldman's death. I was hoping you could answer some questions I have."

"Riku who?" Axel demanded. "Who do you work for?"

Damn it, not this again. Why were these people so cagey? He squeezed his eyes shut, scratching at his head agitatedly. "I'm a private citizen, investigating for the closure of a relative of the deceased."

"A relative?" There was a short silence, followed by, "Sora, huh?" Riku felt a cold touch in his chest. The man had connected the dots incredibly quickly. Then again, if he'd been intimately involved with Roxas for as long as a year, it wasn't such a stretch for him to know who would be requesting answers.

"…Is now an acceptable time to speak?" Riku asked, avoiding confirming Axel's guess. "I know that you were close with Roxas. I'm sure you want the truth as much as anyone."

"The truth…" This came as a mutter, so quiet that Riku almost missed it. "Buddy, I don't know who the fuck you are, but the truth of Roxas' death isn't something you want to be digging into." There was a strong edge of bitterness lacing his words, Riku's heart starting to pound as he realised that this person seemed to have a reasonable insight into the murder.

"That's up to me to decide for myself, isn't it?" he asked. "I was hired for a job. I'm not about to back down because it looks messy."

There was a bark of laughter from the receiver. "Oh, you think you're able to take this on, do you?" Again, silence lapsed, as if the man on the other end were thinking. Riku heard him sigh. "…You got a piece of paper?"

Riku reached for his coat and yanked free his notebook and pencil. "Yes."

"You know the warehouse district, next to the wharf? I'll talk to you there, tonight, at warehouse X-13."

Feeling vaguely threatened by the isolation of the location, Riku frowned, asking, "You can't talk over the phone?"

"I _won't _talk over the phone. It's in person, or it's nothing," Axel responded sharply. "And another thing – Sora has to be there. Come after he gets off from the bar. If he's not with you, I'm not saying shit."

Eyes narrowing, Riku demanded, "Why? He's got nothing to do with this, aside from wanting answers. I was hired to find those answers _for _him, not to bring him along for the ride."

Riku heard what he could have sworn was the squeak of teeth clamping together too tightly. "What the fuck is that, he's got nothing to do with this? It's his brother, isn't it?" Axel was speaking harshly now, roughly. "What I've got to say, I'll say in person to Sora, or I won't say it at all. Get it fucking memorised."

Before Riku could argue further, the other man hung up with enough force to make him flinch away from the receiver. He exhaled, _"Shit!"_

He hadn't planned on getting Sora involved in the investigation in any form whatsoever. He didn't want to expose him to anything that could further upset him or put him in danger. So far, he didn't know about the gruesomeness of his brother's death, and Riku wanted it to remain that way. This investigation was rapidly spinning into something Riku wasn't sure he could control. It was meant to be a quest for answers, sure, but it should have been easier than this. Simpler, as much as a covered-up murder could be. It was supposed to be where this kid was the victim of Twilight Town's underbelly, like that he was having an affair with a politician, or had double-crossed a high-ranked drug dealer, or was blackmailing the wrong people – not this clandestine, cloak-and-dagger crap. Every time Riku turned somewhere in search of information, instead he was finding a void of it. That wasn't _right. _That wasn't how these things usually went.

He tossed the notebook and pencil onto the kitchen counter and dragged his hands through his hair. What to do, what to do…?

Naminé had been the one to give him Axel's number. Clearly, she thought that there was something there that the man could shed light on, something she herself didn't feel safely able to do. She had run from him in the university, but directed him to another member of the research project, the very person who Roxas had met and begun a relationship with while participating in that same research. Axel knew enough that he had correctly guessed at Sora's involvement, and evidently knew something that he wanted only to reveal in Sora's presence. So he knew something about Roxas, possibly even something directly relating to his death. Was it lingering loyalty to his lover that prompted him to want to speak with Sora? Or sympathy towards Sora himself? Or – perhaps, guilt? Had Axel been involved in the murder?

Riku tossed it through his head several times, ultimately concluding that this was something that Sora had to decide for himself. Riku couldn't refuse information that could potentially shed light on the murder. He didn't have the right to. It was something Sora had to figure out was worth the risk or not. He hated to do it to him, but he didn't have a choice.

Taking another gulp of bourbon, Riku went and changed into a fresh set of clothes, got a hat from the closet – one that Joshua wouldn't be able to wrest from him, this time – and shrugged his coat back on. It was time to head on over to the piano bar.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Riku walked to the bar, hunched against the cold evening air. He heard it before he saw it, a haze of cigarette smoke and loud chatter filling the night, the sidewalk becoming busy with people lined up to get in even at this early hour. The neon sign for Destiny Islandreached his gaze, its cheery palm tree logo gleaming through the darkness. He hadn't been back since the time he'd assisted them with the gangster shakedown, but he was recognised by the bouncer as soon as the guy set eyes on him. He was waved past the queue and into the dim confines of the club.

Inside, the place was set up with the bar alongside the far wall, tables and chairs scattered around the wide room, with the stage sitting in the centre, elevated and smothered in hot lights. A gleaming black piano stood next to a microphone on a stand, behind which were Sora and Kairi, respectively. They were mid-performance, Kairi singing the classics with a sultry breathiness, Sora barely visible at the piano, deeply focused, the sound of his playing filling the place to the rafters.

Riku removed his hat, crossing to the bar, where he was again recognised and handed a gin and tonic without even asking. He found a corner table and sat quietly, sipping his drink and watching the place steadily fill. It was a place where people could talk, drink, and smoke without having to yell to be heard, the performance central but smooth enough so as not to be competitive for attention. Riku signalled a passing waiter for another drink, lit up a cigarette, and settled in to wait for a break in the music. It was the closest to a relaxing time that he'd had in a while. A bowl of pretzels found its way to his elbow, likely sent from the bar, and so he managed to stave off some hunger pangs, enjoying a generally pleasant time.

When the first leg of the performance wound up, there was enthusiastic applause, with Kairi descending from the stage while Sora remained to play some light tunes like a palate cleanser. She made a social sweep of the room, welcoming the regular punters and greeting new faces, stopping occasionally to chat, before one of the waitstaff murmured into her ear, her eyes finding Riku in his corner an instant later. She made a beeline for him, sitting at the table and picking his cigarette case up from the table, taking one out and placing it between her lips for him to light. He obliged, allowing her a moment to gather herself and glance around to make sure no one was listening in. She leaned forward, her evening gown sparkling with every motion.

"I wasn't expecting you here so soon," she told him, gaze scrutinous. "You here for my tips already?"

Riku smiled blandly. "Not quite yet. Actually, I came to see Sora."

Kairi nodded slightly. "He told me you'd come to see him this morning. Have you uncovered anything about his brother?"

Riku hesitated, toying with the rim of his glass, eyes darting. "It's more that I need to ask something of him."

Kairi frowned. "But you already saw him so recently. I didn't think you'd need to talk to him again until it was all over."

Riku studied her disapproving expression carefully. "…Are the two of you… involved?"

She blinked, then let out a titter, her hand fluttering over her chest. "No, no, nothing like that. But we do go back a fair way." Her humour faded. "What's happened is – awful. Sora isn't the same person he was this time last week. He needs help, Riku. But…" She looked over her shoulder to where the young man continued to play, Riku's gaze drawn along with hers to his small form and serious face. Under the bright lights, he looked – gaunt. The deep shadows under his eyes that Riku had noticed that morning were deeper than ever. Turning back to him, Kairi tenderly said, "He's my friend. I don't want anything more to happen to him. I don't want him to suffer." Her gaze firming up, she went on, "So I don't want you coming here with anything that isn't completely vital. If you want to verify something, you can just run it by me, and I can find it out for you. Sora needs to be shielded from all of this, Riku."

Riku sighed, expression quirking with momentary frustration. "I hear you. But I wouldn't be here for him if it wasn't something important to the investigation." He met her stare, forcing himself to not show the apprehension he was feeling. "I can only ask this of him."

She pursed her lips, falling silent for the rest of her cigarette, Riku waiting patiently. As she crushed the butt out in the ashtray, she said curtly, "Fine. I'll let him know you're here. He's got a break coming up soon, for a few songs."

Riku inclined his head in thanks, and with one last haughty look, Kairi elegantly rose and swept off, leaving behind traces of smoke and perfume. Her simple wrath was almost heart-warming. She was doing her best to look out for Sora. Clearly, he was a well-loved person. Still, there was something in Riku that was thankful at the fact that they weren't intimate. Without letting himself think too closely on that, he dropped the nub of his cigarette into the ashtray and busily lit up another. He closed his eyes for a time, letting the flowing melodies of Sora's piano pass through his weary body.

At length, the break between songs became a silence, followed by Kairi singing again, going acapella. He peeled his eyes open in time to see Sora drop into the seat that Kairi had previously occupied, looking nervous and tired. Sitting straighter, Riku cleared his throat and said, "Sora! Thanks for seeing me."

Smiling wanly, Sora shook his head. "No, I told you to come by. Thank you for going out of your way to come and speak with me." He drew what seemed to be a fortifying breath and asked in a low voice, "Did you find something out?"

Riku grimaced. "I'm sorry, but at this point I haven't accomplished anything significant."

Sora sagged slightly, not with disappointment but relief; he had clearly not been relishing the coming news. With that set aside for now, he grew confused. "Oh – okay. Then, what can I do for you?"

Riku exhaled slowly. "I managed to talk briefly with Axel, the man you said was your brother's boyfriend." Sora nodded faintly, Riku's tension rising as he said, "He wants to meet us both tonight after your shift to talk about Roxas."

Sora went still, processing this. "So… he knows something? About…?"

Riku shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what he does or doesn't know, but he refuses to speak to me unless you're there with me." After a beat, he awkwardly added, "I'm sorry to put you in the middle of it like this. You can refuse if you want, and I'll try to get him to talk to me."

Sora again shook his head, waving off the idea, looking perplexed. "It – it's all right." He thought for a moment, then nodded once, very slightly, as if to himself. "Okay. I'll go. I'm sure that Axel wouldn't ask this for no reason." He gnawed at his lower lip, glancing back at the stage. "I'm working until the bar closes. It's going to be a while."

"It's fine," Riku reassured him. "I'll go and take care of some business, then meet you back here when you get off."

Sora hesitated, then nodded. "Okay. Um, my shift finishes at three, though. Is that okay?"

Riku smiled crookedly. "Not a problem. Maybe this means I'll finally catch up on my paperwork. That's a long time to be playing piano, though. How do you do it?"

Sora smiled a little at being back in familiar territory, a startlingly cute expression. "I don't play the whole time. I do bar duties at the end of the night and help clean up."

Riku coughed slightly, mumbling, "Well, that's good then." With his goal out of the way, Sora's agreement garnered, he gathered his hat and cigarettes and stood. "I'll be back by three, then. Don't forget me, now."

The last part was meant to be teasing, but the young man shook his head adamantly up at him, earnestly swearing, "I couldn't! I mean – I won't." His cheeks reddening, Sora gave him a final, tight smile and headed quickly over to the bar.

Riku left Destiny Island,back out into the street, where he drew a breath and shook out his arms. Craning his head back, he looked up at the moon, huffed out some steam, and muttered, "Okay!" Head back in the real world, he made his way to the office, where he spent a couple of hours crunching budget numbers and scribbling out rough invoices. At every minute of his life, he was just barely scraping by. But, even so… if it meant he could help people… He shut his eyes as Sora flitted through his brain again. Grinding the heel of his palm into his forehead, he wondered when he was going to stop doing this. Thinking incessantly about the client wasn't going to get the case solved any faster.

After grabbing a nap on the sofa, Riku, with an hour to spare, went to a nearby diner for some solid food, before heading home to get his car. In Twilight Town, you didn't need a car too often, between the fact that so much was within walking or tram distance, but once midnight had melted past, it wasn't entirely sensible to move about the open streets. This was a frequently violent town, and Riku would be damned if he was going to expose Sora to that on his watch.

He cruised back to Destiny Island, the streets all but empty now, parking at the rear and knocking on the staff door. The bouncer from earlier let him in, watching over the rear of the place until everyone was safely out. Riku found Sora on the main floor with a broom in hand, shirtsleeves pushed to his elbows. Upon noticing him, the boy gave him a quick wave and then glanced over at the bar, where the manager nodded, releasing him for the night.

"I'll be just a minute, Riku," Sora promised, disappearing into the back of the club before emerging a short while later with a satchel of his belongings, a heavy coat, and a thick scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face. "Sorry. Thanks for waiting." They left the bar, Sora exchanging goodnights with the bouncer, Riku leading the way to his car, to Sora's surprise. "Oh – are we going somewhere far?"

Riku nodded. "The wharf." In addition to being an isolated spot, it was on the other side of town, about an hour away. Sora frowned nervously at the news.

"Wow. Axel's being pretty… cryptic about all this, isn't he?"

Riku met his worried gaze. "I thought the same thing." They milled about outside the car, Riku unlocking it but not yet opening the door. "Hey – Sora." The boy blinked at his name, focusing on him. "You don't have to do this. This isn't something you need to involve yourself in. I know I'm the one who approached you about it, but that's only because I wanted you to be able to decide for yourself. It doesn't mean you don't have a choice."

Sora hesitated, then smiled at Riku, his mouth hidden by the scarf but the warmth of it reaching his eyes. "I know. Thanks. But this is… definitely something I have to do. I have to hear what Axel has to say." He lowered his head. "Roxas deserves answers for what happened." He blinked rapidly, clearing away any moisture that might have been welling. "I'm sure Axel must know something. I need to hear it myself." Despite everything, he was determined. He had a lot of strength hidden away in that slight frame, Riku's heart softening at the thought.

"…Okay, then." They climbed into his aged station wagon, Riku starting it up with a rumble, turning the headlights on, and setting out into the night.

.o.O.o.

The drive across town was quiet, Sora peering out the window at the passing city streets while Riku tried to prepare himself for the unknown. If he'd at least met Axel beforehand, had a chance to gauge him, he might have had an idea of what was waiting up ahead at the warehouse; but as things stood, he could only take a wait-and-see approach, and hope to protect Sora if things went south.

Sora, for his part, jogged his leg up and down, hugging his body for warmth as the car's heating ducts struggled to pierce the chill. He was anxious, as was Riku, but had accepted the situation with surprising aplomb, rolling with the punches, as it were. His own twin had been killed in a dirty alleyway; probably at this point, he was willing to go nearly anywhere to find out why.

They reached the warehouse district shortly before four a.m., Riku driving slowly through the narrow lanes in search of Axel's meeting point. When they were up to the S row of warehouses, he killed the headlights and lowered gears, easing the car quietly along until the sign for W came into view. He stopped the engine, murmuring to Sora, "We'll go on foot from here." Sora went along unquestioningly, Riku's tension palpable in the small space.

They stepped out onto thin bitumen, Riku leaving the driver's door slightly ajar, so that if they needed to make a rapid retreat there would be no unnecessary fumbling. Everything about this meeting had his hackles up, his teeth on edge with the old feeling he used to get as a cop when a situation was about to go seriously awry. God, he needed a cigarette. And a drink.

As a precaution, he went to the trunk and popped it open, making sure Sora didn't see what he pulled out and stashed up his coat sleeve. He led the way, making sure to keep Sora close, their shoes crunching quietly over the dusty road. They reached row X of the district, the lights of warehouse thirteen visible like a beacon in the distance. Riku kept his senses alert as they closed in, the back of his neck tingling with a powerful sense of wrongness. Why this place? Why so isolated? Why so ambiguous?

They reached the doors of the warehouse, which were partially opened in anticipation of their arrival. The space within was messy, filled with shipping containers and crates, forklifts, and palettes of what looked like construction materials. In the centre of the space was a red-haired figure dressed entirely in black, sitting pensively on a large crate, his boots dangling towards the ground. His piercing green eyes found them, a thin smile showing on his lips as they warily approached him.

"Sora," he said, his voice a lazy drawl. "Good to see you again." He flicked his sharp gaze to Riku, the smile becoming a smirk. "And you must be the private _dick_. Gotta say, I half expected you to come alone."

"Sora has a right to hear what you've got to say," Riku tersely replied. "It wasn't my call to make. He chose to be here."

"Axel." Sora spoke up with a trembling but resolute voice. "Do you know anything about Roxas' death?"

Axel's eyes slid back to him, his mocking expression fading. He was silent for a moment, a shadow seeming to creep across his being. "…I don't know why Roxas died. And I don't know how it happened." He suddenly burst into a wide grin that pulled terribly at the corners, his throat jerking as he said, "But, fuck me, I miss him." The rictus contorted so far from a smile that it was painful to witness. He made a sound like a sob from deep in his chest, his hands trembling upwards to cover the top of his face. Only that awful mouth was visible, teeth gleaming as they gritted under the harsh warehouse lighting.

Sora, tears leaking down his cheeks, demanded, "Why did you call me here? If you don't know anything – if you didn't have anything to do with it – why? Why here? Why now?" He moved towards Axel, stopped only by Riku's hand against his chest. "What _do _you know?"

It took a minute for Axel to steady himself, his teeth disappearing from view as his face slowly relaxed. When his hands lowered, there was an emptiness in his expression that alarmed Riku to the point that he began tugging on Sora, backing them away from him – but too late. He twisted at a glimpse of motion to the side, to find they were surrounded by several figures in black robes, their faces hidden from sight. Sora clutched at Riku, hitching a panicked gasp at the sight of their menacing forms. To Axel, Riku snapped, "What is this? What are you doing?"

Axel ignored him, saying dully, "It's going to be all right, Sora. All you have to do is come with us, and nobody will get hurt."

Sora's fingers dug into Riku as he cried, _"Axel! _Whatever this is, _Roxas wouldn't want it!"_

A flash went through his green eyes, but otherwise the man's expression didn't shift. "Just don't fight it," he said softly.

"Don't fight it, my ass." Riku dropped the tire iron he'd been hiding up his sleeve into his hand and took a swing at the closest figure, slamming it with a deep noise into their skull. They dropped like a sack of bricks, his next swing aiming the head of the tool into the solar plexus of the one charging towards him, crunching some ribs and dropping them down to join their comrade. He threw himself at the next one, who managed to get in a good punch to send him staggering back before he lashed out with a leg and hooked his foot behind their knee, yanking them forwards and down before smashing their exposed kneecap with his club. The person screamed, the first voice to find the air since Riku had started moving, seeming to prompt one of them to draw a gun from several feet away, stopping Riku cold at the sight of the barrel.

"That's it," the figure sneered, cold and male. "Not so hot when a gun's out, are you?" He swung it to encompass Sora, who up until now had been following Riku in shock, but froze under the gun-wielder's focus.

Uneasily, Axel spoke up. "Hey, Xigbar…"

"Hey, hey, hey now," the robed figure tutted. "Way to blow the anonymity there, Axel."

"Don't point a fucking gun at Sora," Axel replied agitatedly. "If he gets hurt –"

"What, your dead boyfriend's going to get upset?" Xigbar laughed.

Axel hissed, his eyes narrowing into slits as he hopped down from the crate. "Now, wait just a goddamn minute –"

"Ah, this is boring." The figure called Xigbar swung the gun back to Riku and cocked the hammer, Riku feeling his chest lurch as he realised the trigger was about to be pulled.

Sora, realising the same, cried out, _"No!" _and threw himself into Riku to shove him aside, Axel bellowing, _"Sora!" _just as the shot cracked deafeningly out.

The echo seemed endless, the body that dropped to the ground sporting bright red hair. Axel had managed to throw himself in front of Xigbar, and now lay motionless on the concrete, thick blood flowing outward in each direction.

"Oh," said Xigbar. "Oops."

Before anyone else could recover, Riku was moving again, slashing the tire iron out and dragging Sora's stunned form after him through the break in their lines and into the mess of the warehouse where bullets wouldn't find them.

"Oh, come on!" Xigbar yelled after them. "Don't run…! There's nowhere to go!"

Nonetheless, with the black figures in pursuit, Riku managed to haul Sora to the doors and back out into the night, the pair of them running to the car, Riku shoving Sora through the driver's door and over to the passenger's seat in a sprawl, gunning the motor and slamming the accelerator, the car nearly spinning out as he wrestled the wheel around and sped away.

In the rear-view mirror, he saw them stop chasing, the few that were uninjured standing in a line watching him go. It was eerie; there didn't seem to be any sense of urgency in their demeanour, as if it didn't even matter that he was escaping them.

In response to the fear that bubbled up at this thought, he pressed harder on the accelerator, the car nearly exploding out onto the street to leave the warehouses and wharf far behind. Next to him, Sora was crying, shaking, saying over and over again, "Oh, my God… oh, my God… Riku! _Axel! _Oh, my God…!"

Roughly, Riku reached for him, dragging him close and pressing his wet face into his chest, holding him while steering with one hand. "It's okay, Sora. It's fine. You're okay. Everything's going to be okay."

Sora moaned like the world was ending. Riku couldn't say for sure it wasn't. All he could do was keep driving, as fast and as far as possible, until dawn's light started staining the horizon.


End file.
